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SUMMARY:Chemical Engineering Seminar- The emerging importance of microbial
  consortia in the biotechnology for sustainability
DTSTART:20191025T161500
DTEND:20191025T173000
DTSTAMP:20260510T084047Z
UID:e4b7b499962444a4549df3df046bdb6c304b5234a4241a6b8065cf5c
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Terry Papoutsakis\, Department of Chemical Engineering\,
  University of Delaware\, USA\nIn microbial fermentations to produce metab
 olites\, at least 33% of the sugar-substrate carbon is lost as CO2 during 
 pyruvate decarboxylation to acetyl-CoA\, which is typically the starting p
 oint for metabolite biosynthesis. Previous attempts to reduce this carbon 
 loss focused on engineering a single organism aiming to achieve that goal.
  In nature\, most microorganisms live in complex communities where syntrop
 hic interactions result in superior resource utilization. Here we show tha
 t a synthetic Clostridium syntrophy consisting of a solventogen C. acetobu
 tylicum\, which converts carbohydrates into a variety of chemicals\, and a
 n acetogen C. ljungdahlii which fixes CO2. This syntrophic system performe
 d robustly to achieve better efficiencies than either organism alone by im
 proving the carbon recovery into metabolites by 20%\, thus achieving theor
 etical yields as defined by electron availability. Our data shows that in 
 this syntrophic co-culture\, the two organisms exchange metabolites direct
 ly\, frequently leading to interspecies cell-wall/membrane fusion events\,
  which we probed using advanced electron microscopy tools including correl
 ative fluorescence/TEM/SEM microscopy and electron tomography. Such fusion
  events have not been previously reported and may be more frequent than is
  currently appreciated in natural consortia. In addition\, this syntrophy 
 results in novel biosynthetic pathways/ capabilities that neither of the t
 wo organisms alone possesses. This and other syntrophies expand the metabo
 lite space by generating metabolites that neither organism can produce alo
 ne. Syntrophic cultures offer a flexible platform for metabolite productio
 n with superior carbon recovery that can also be applied to electron-enhan
 ced fermentations enabling even higher carbon recovery.\n\nRemote attendan
 ce possible at: https://epfl.zoom.us/j/164678393
LOCATION:BCH 2201 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==BCH%202201
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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